Hey 20 Percent!
Every now and then I watch a subway pull into, say, Friedrichstrasse and I look at the bored face behind the windshield and think: I kinda want to be a subway driver. Just cruise all over Berlin all day and occasionally yell at teenagers for blocking doors. But I might just be a pliable individual — for most of my school career I also thought I wanted to be a teacher but being a university lecturer for two semesters cured me of that notion.
And now I know that with a little freelancing, being a subway driver would be financially viable. T-Online just published their salaries and a BVG subway driver makes €3,180 a month to start. They also get monthly extras like €80 in clothing money (hello Uniqlo!), an extra €225 just because they’re drivers and then a €2,000 Christmas bonus. Also you get bonuses for night and weekend shifts (25%) as well as a fat 135% if it’s a holiday.
Plus, my admiration every time you pull into a station.
S-Bahn drivers make a similar €3,861 per month but it’s more difficult — you have to be an actual, real train driver to pilot those babies (subway drivers just drive subways). On the plus side, if you got tired of Berlin you could just go and start hauling cargo all over Europe.
Thank you for accompanying me on my escapist journey today.
Andrew
We had to move the live recording of our podcast as part of Podfest Berlin to Saturday afternoon at 2pm. We’re going to record with former colleague Elizabeth Rushton and other special guests! Tickets! Stop by!
Zugangskontrollen just means turnstiles
I’m not the only one subway-dreaming these days. As the CDU’s Görlitzer Park fence nears completion, the conservative party is already dreaming of its next barrier: around the 175 subway stations in our fair city. That’s right — they want turnstiles and gates like in most other subway stations around the world, according to Tagesspiegel. Retrofitting the stations would cost an estimated €400 million and the cost would be carried by passengers — a few extra cents on each ticket, the CDU thinks. The idea crops up every few years — they were even going to test access controls 25 years ago until a fire at the Deutsche Oper subway stop raised safety concerns. The party’s mag-lev train is more likely — many stations are so accessible that it would make it difficult to fence them off (think elevators directly onto platforms) and then there’s historic preservations issues. Plus, you know, bureaucracy.
Kindertagesstätten desperately seeking kids
Was your subway platform packed this morning? If daycares are any indication, there may soon be some relief. Berlin daycares are only able to find kids for 9 out of every 10 spots as us Berliners create fewer new Berliners, according to RBB24. At least two public Kitas (daycares) have closed and officials are exploiting the weakening demand to improve quality — each teacher will only be responsible for 4 kids next year, down from 5 currently. Union Verdi says that while things may look to be improving, education senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch (CDU) is also eliminating 20% bonuses per non-German-speaking child. Will the lack of kids works its way up to the apartment market?
Explosion, fire at the High-Deck development
At least 14 people were taken to the hospital early Monday after an explosion and a fire in the brutalist High-Deck apartment complex in Neukölln, according to RBB24. The fire started around 3.30am under shady circumstances and reporters allegedly heard additional explosions as firefighters worked to extinguish the ground-floor blaze. Residents above the second floor were allowed back into the building Monday and police are investigating the cause of the fire and explosion.
Nilpferd or Flußpferd but hippo sounds bettter
Although I have mixed feelings about zoos generally, I always liked the hippo exhibit that opened in 1997 and now 13-year-old Nala had her first offspring. Twin baby hippos were born at the Berlin Zoo on Sept. 28 but unfortunately only one survived, according to the zoo (extreme cuteness at the link). The baby weighs only 28 kilos but veterinarians are confident it’ll get up to its regulation 40 kilos soon. Berlin has had hippos in its zoo since 1847.
🍺 🥨 Germany-wide news 🥨 🍺
🚜 Industrial manufacturers halting exports to US — tariffs
🪈 Germany to outlaw catcalling too?
⚽ Mannschaft back on World Cup track after win in NI
Events this week, curated by The Next Day Berlin
📷 Diane Arbus & Ligia Lewis
Opening: Wednesday, 15.10, 7 – 10 pm / 8 pm: DJ Yazzus. Gropius Bau, Niederkirchnerstr. 7, Berlin. Free entry to the opening. Until 18.01.2026.
Gropius Bau launches its autumn program with the openings of “Diane Arbus: Konstellationen“ and “Ligia Lewis: I’M NOT HERE FORRRRR...,” two major solo shows spanning photography, performance, and film.
🎶Eivør + Special Guest: Ásgeir
Thursday, 16.10, 8 pm. Huxley’s Neue Welt, Hasenheide 107–113, 10967 Berlin. Tickets: €61.40
Faroese powerhouse blending Nordic folk tradition with electronic atmospheres. 🎧 Enn
🎭 The Hunger by Constanza Macras
Saturday, 18.10, 7:30 pm; and 28.11, 7:30 pm. (Surtitles in EN and DE). Volksbühne, Linienstraße 227, 10178 Berlin. Ticket: €11-€33.
A reflection on colonialism, greed, and ritual, The Hunger links cannibalism and consumerism in a surreal take on excess, spectacle, and modern reality.
🎤Morcheeba
Sunday, 19.10, 8 pm. Uber Eats Music Hall, East Side Str. 1-2, 10243 Berlin. Ticket: from €50.50
Trip-hop elegance that defined a generation, a night of smooth nostalgia. 🎧 Escape the Chaos
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Factoid
The approximatley 131,440 dogs in Berlin poop on our city 252,000 times a day, leaving an estimated 75 million tonnes of excrement, according to my own calculations using figures from RBB24. By comparison, we humans create about 2,000 tonnes of garbage every day in the Hauptstadt. At least it’s conveniently sorted.
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Maurice’s other newsletter: Update Germany
🎙️The 20% Berlin Podcast on Spotify
> The approximatley 131,440 dogs in Berlin poop on our city 252,000 times a day, leaving an estimated 75 million tonnes of excrement, according to my own calculations using figures from RBB24.
I don't think the math checks out here. One ton is 1000 kg, assuming the 75M tonnes is an yearly figure, that would mean that each time a dog poop, it would poop in average 8kg . Looking at the linked RBB24 article, it mentions between 55 and 60 tonnes per day, which would amount to a bit under 22 thousand tonnes per year and a more realistic 240 grams of poop per poopage.